Journal #5

I believe that the three most important aspects of the course so far include everyday writing as having a personal connection to the viewer and/or the owner; that a rhetorical situation should be present in everyday writing, meaning that there is a problem and the piece of everyday writing should aid in solving that problem; and that by means of circulation, everyday writing should be encountered by a local audience. These three concepts of everyday writing align with tattoos, as can be seen in Dan Brouwer’s “The Precarious Visibility Politics of Self-Stigmatization: The Case of HIV/AIDS Tattoos.” The problem of HIV/AIDS is addressed through tattoos “to ‘make AIDS visible.’” The AIDS tattoo wearers announce their invisible disease while remaining “vocally silent.” These individuals refuse to be ashamed of their HIV infection through the display of their tattoos, but are also fulfilling the desires of many others in society who wish to ostracize those with HIV/AIDS. In this way, the rhetorical situation of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the tattoo wearers still remains present. Furthermore, the audiences of the AIDS tattoo wearers are the people that the wearers wish to make their HIV infection known to.  Andrew Coats, who is introduced in the article, states that he wants “people who would have gone to bed with [him] to see this,” suggesting that his tattoo is meant to inform others of what they are getting into. Also, as Taylor mentioned in her journal, a tattoo is a form of personal individualization and each wearer has different reasons for obtaining the tattoo, which calls for varying interpretation of the tattoo for each member of the audience.